richard engel and several coworkers were abducted last week in syria where they have been covering the civil war for nbc. engel says there were more than a dozen armed kidnappers who support the regime of president obama bashar assad. he said that he and his colleagues were blindfolded and threatened with mock executions before the -- before they managed to escape. >> the top tech trends in the new year. donald bell joins us in the studio from cnet. >> and the market just opened about 10 minutes ago. let's take a quick look at the recall numbers here. so far it's looking so good. coming up we'll get an update from kcbs moneywatch reporter jason brooks. ,,,,,, look at you guys with your fancy-schmancy u-verse high speed internet. you know, in my day you couldn't just start streaming six ways to sunday. you'd get knocked off. and sometimes, it took a minute to download a song. that's sixty seconds, for crying out loud. we know how long a minute is! sitting, waiting for an album to download. i still have back problems. you're only 14 and a half. he doesn't have back problems. you kids hav